{"id":378593,"date":"2025-05-16T11:05:11","date_gmt":"2025-05-16T09:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=378593"},"modified":"2025-05-16T11:05:13","modified_gmt":"2025-05-16T09:05:13","slug":"daily-mail-misses-the-real-story-about-long-term-stable-antarctica-ice-in-dumb-quip-about-climate-deniers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=378593","title":{"rendered":"Daily Mail Misses the Real Story About Long-Term Stable Antarctica Ice in Dumb Quip About Climate \u2018Deniers\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From The Daily Sceptic<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By\u00a0Chris Morrison<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A remarkably silly headline appeared last week in the\u00a0Daily Mail<\/em>\u00a0stating: \u2018Shocking Antarctica discovery sends climate change deniers into mass celebration<\/a>.\u2019 It appears that 100 gigatonnes of ice has been added to the Antarctica ice sheet in a 21-month period to December 2023. Quite how joy will be unconfined in the ranks of the \u2018deniers\u2019 over an increase, or decrease, of 0.00041% is not clear. The amount is an ice sheet rounding error and it would be scientifically accurate to refer to it as zero. Even if the figure was a loss, it would take nearly half a million years for all the ice in Antarctica to melt and that does not include any allowance for glacial periods or indeed a new ice age. Unsurprising, in the haste to stick \u2018denier\u2019 into the mix, a far more important finding about Antarctica ice was missed. A recent paper undergoing peer review has calculated that\u00a0around 2,546 gt of ice<\/a>\u00a0has been added every year since 1960 to the surface on Antarctica. This would almost certainly have been enough to stabilise any natural losses, and it is possible that the ice sheet has been stable or even growing slowly over this period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The figures for Antarctica\u2019s overall ice mass are difficult to calculate. They must include losses from ice calving and melting and they are thought to total around 2,000 gt a year. Driving ice accumulation in Antarctica is snowfall and there is some evidence that the area is receiving more precipitation than previously thought. The paper led by Dr Christiaan van Dalum of Utrecht University suggests heavy recent accumulations of ice in Antarctica that appear to outweigh any losses at the coast. There is said to be increased precipitation in the mountains of West Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is not always clear in scientific papers just what the authors are comparing. The Daily Mail<\/em> story arises from a Chinese group<\/a> whose work on the Antarctica ice sheet appears to concentrate on just four eastern glacial basins. The Chinese findings suggest little or no change while van Dalum points to increases over the entire continent even allowing for significant losses due to natural events. Nevertheless, the key to understanding climate change lies in the length of the observations. Drawing celebratory conclusions over less than two years\u2019 supposed growth is junk science, possibly designed to boost clicks and impress potential advertisers. Assessing results over 60 years as the Dalum paper does offers greater understanding of the dynamics of polar ice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Try going back not two years but two thousand. Back to the time of the Roman warming period where temperatures were likely higher than they are today. Recent evidence suggests that the limit of Antarctic sea ice was 2,000 kilometres further south between 2,500 to 1,000 years ago than it is today. A paper published recently in Nature <\/em>notes that DNA remains confirm the presence of elephant seals off Cape Hallett at 72.3\u00b0S. Elephant seals breed in sub-Antarctic ice-free waters with the largest colony now resident on Macquarie Island at 54.5\u00b0S. The Nature<\/em> authors note that reduced sea ice extent<\/a> between 2,500 and 1,000 years ago allowed the seals to breed further south and attain large local populations before facing an extirpation event as the ice grew northwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The science blog No Tricks Zone<\/em> notes a 2019 paper that found evidence of elephant seal remains even further south<\/a> than Cape Hallett with breeding sites on Inexpressible Island and Marble Point (79.4\u00b0S). \u201cLand-fast ice and multi-year sea ice has become much more pronounced in coastal settings over the last millennium,\u201d the paper states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps it would be as well not to tell the Daily Mail<\/em> that gets very excited on behalf of \u2018deniers\u2019 about a few months of possible ice movement. Or Clive Cookson of the Financial Times<\/em> who suggested a couple of years ago that a cyclical downturn in Antarctica sea ice meant the area \u201cfaces a catastrophic cascade<\/a> of extreme environmental events\u2026 that will affect the climate around the world\u201d. Shortly afterwards he gave us an hysterical story<\/a> headlined: \u2018It looks like we\u2019ve lost control of our ice sheets.\u2019 Mass celebrations, it might be suggested, broke out among the ranks of mainstream alarmists at the time with headlines around the world trumpeting \u201cmind blowing\u201d low amounts of Antarctica sea ice. Alas, the mind blowing quote came from Dr Walter Meier of the National Snow and Ice Data Centre, who seemed to forget that he had been part of an earlier team that unlocked 1960s Antarctic ice records from early photographs taken by Nimbus weather satellites. These revealed similar highs and lows to those of a couple of years ago, and Meier observed at the time that such variations \u201care not that unusual\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a commentary on recent polar ice academic work, the distinguished science writer Roger Pielke Jr. noted that catastrophising climate change based on the most extreme claims leads to scepticism when the promised apocalypse fails to occur. Climate research is not a scoreboard in a Manichean debate, he added, but instead offers certainties, uncertainties and even areas of total ignorance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But of course that does not support Net Zero \u2013 a politicised fantasy world where the scientific process goes to die, the science is \u2018settled\u2019 and imaginary \u2018deniers\u2019 go wild over 90 weeks of barely measurable ice growth near the South Pole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chris Morrison is the<\/em> Daily Sceptic\u2019s<\/em> Environment Editor.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A remarkably silly headline appeared last week in the\u00a0Daily Mail\u00a0stating: \u2018Shocking Antarctica discovery sends climate change deniers into mass celebration.\u2019 It appears that 100 gigatonnes of ice has been added to the Antarctica ice sheet in a 21-month period to December 2023. Quite how joy will be unconfined in the ranks of the \u2018deniers\u2019 over an increase, or decrease, of 0.00041% is not clear. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":378596,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691818326,691819134,691825006,691819743,691827913,691818154,691818895],"class_list":{"0":"post-378593","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-antarctica","9":"tag-climate-alarmism","10":"tag-climate-change-deniers","11":"tag-climate-propaganda","12":"tag-daily-mail","13":"tag-net-zero","14":"tag-sea-ice","16":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/0wp2012601.jpg?fit=2560%2C1440&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1Aul","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":279541,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=279541","url_meta":{"origin":378593,"position":0},"title":"\u201cMind-blowing\u201d Claims of Record Low Antarctica Sea Ice on BBC Contradicted by Statements Made Seven Years Ago","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"19\/09\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Antarctica sea ice is at a \u201cmind-blowing\u201d record low winter area of 17 million square kilometres, reports a three-person BBC \u201cNews Climate & Science and Data Journalism Team\u201d, as lower levels than those recorded in the recent past provide the cue for yet more media climate hysteria.","rel":"","context":"In \"Antarctica\"","block_context":{"text":"Antarctica","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=antarctica"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/image-584.png?fit=1200%2C786&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/image-584.png?fit=1200%2C786&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/image-584.png?fit=1200%2C786&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/image-584.png?fit=1200%2C786&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/image-584.png?fit=1200%2C786&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":432757,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=432757","url_meta":{"origin":378593,"position":1},"title":"Wrong, Daily Mail, Antarctica\u2019s Thwaites Glacier Isn\u2019t on the Road to Collapse by 2067","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"20\/03\/2026","format":false,"excerpt":"The Daily Mail (DM) claims in \u201cAntarctica \u2018Doomsday Glacier\u2019 COLLAPSE by 2067\u201d that the Thwaites Glacier is on track for catastrophic failure within decades. This misleading framing gives a false impression of what science actually says about the issue. Observational data show ongoing ice loss and instability, but they do\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Antarctic\"","block_context":{"text":"Antarctic","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=antarctic"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/0-Thwaites-Glacier.jpg?fit=784%2C1168&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/0-Thwaites-Glacier.jpg?fit=784%2C1168&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/0-Thwaites-Glacier.jpg?fit=784%2C1168&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/0-Thwaites-Glacier.jpg?fit=784%2C1168&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":287726,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=287726","url_meta":{"origin":378593,"position":2},"title":"West Antarctica Temperature FALLS 2\u00b0C in 20 Years","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"12\/11\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"From The DAILY SCEPTIC BY\u00a0CHRIS MORRISON The continent of Antarctica is a difficult hunting ground for climate apocalypse fanatics since there has been barely any overall warming over the last 70 years. 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